Answering The Claim: “There Is No Evidence For God”

By Robert Clifton Robinson on January 25, 2019 • ( 0 )

It is a common phrase, but one that not many know how to defend: “There is no evidence for God.” The atheist is famous for reciting these words, thinking that they are indefensible. The basis of the atheist’s claim that no one can provide any verifiable evidence for God is centered on one premise: “refute all alleged evidence, regardless of its source or assertion.”

If you have ever attempted to answer this challenge, you have discovered that regardless of anything you say or present, it is always refuted.

One learns very quickly in debates with atheists that the statement that there is no evidence for God, does not originate from a sincere desire to know if God exists. In nearly 45 years of interviewing atheists and by participation in several debates, I have learned that evidence is not the barrier to a belief that God exists.

People who state that they do not believe in God because they have seen no evidence for such an entity, are not on a personal quest to find evidence. The modern atheist is not really an atheist at all; he is an antagonist—desiring argument, rather than knowledge.

In order to be a true atheist, one would have to investigate all the evidence which exists in the universe and evaluate it fairly, objectively, and honestly. Meeting this definition is not possible since no person has the ability to see every evidence that exists, making those who claim to be atheists, at best, agnostics.

ATHEISM: From the Greek theos (divinity) and gnosis (to know) to mean that atheism is simply the absence of belief in a God or gods.

AGNOSTICISM: A lack of knowledge; the position that because the existence of gods is unknowable, they suspend judgment regarding whether a God or gods exist.

When the atheist states “there is no evidence for God,” what he means is that, in his mind, he doesn’t believe anything that is presented to prove God, is credible. It doesn’t matter what the evidence proves, the atheist will not accept proof, for this is not really his objection. Here is where the average person is left in the dark: atheists don’t care about evidence.

It was many years into my personal discovery of how the atheist thinks, that I learned that these persons do not actually believe there is no God; they refuse to believe in the type of God that is presented by a majority of religions and holy books. The average atheist doesn’t know the difference between the God of the Bible, and all of the other gods that are presented. They will tell you that there is no difference between the God of the Bible and all others. In truth, they have no real knowledge whether or not this is true, and they take no sincere steps to learn the difference.

Again, it doesn’t matter to the modern atheist what kind of god a person believes in. The problem in their thinking, is that any assertion of a supernatural being who judges between good and evil, heaven and hell, moral or immoral, is out of the question.

If you assume that you may be able to help someone understand that God exists, by having a friendly discussion, you will find that this is not possible.

First, there is credible, verifiable, empirical evidence for God. If God exists, then it is certain that we would be able to verify that this Being exists. The most logical place that we could expect to find evidence for God, is by something that this Being has created.

See The Scientific Evidence For How God Created The Universe

In the case of the God who is described by the Bible, He said that we can know that He exists and what He is like, by the things that He made. David wrote in Psalms 19, about 3,000 years ago, that the universe is a message system for the people of earth to show us that God exists.

The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
The skies display his craftsmanship.
Day after day they continue to speak;
night after night they make him known.
They speak without a sound or word;
their voice is never heard.
Yet their message has gone throughout the earth,
and their words to all the world. ~Psalms 19:1-4 (NLT)

Nearly 2,000 years ago Paul wrote in his personal letter to the Christian’s at Rome that the universe proves that God exists, so that people are without excuse for knowing that God is real.

For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. ~Romans 1:20 (NLT)

It was the purpose of God that a universe would exist so that earth could be possible, and we humans could have a suitable home to live upon. It was by the creation of the universe and human life, that we would understand that God must exist and that He must certainly love us. When people deny the obvious and visible evidence of the universe and human life, they begin to make up their own ideas about God; that He doesn’t exist, or that He is different from the God who is revealed to the world by the pages of the Bible.

Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. ~Romans 1:20 (NLT)

When the universe is presented to the atheist as evidence for the existence of God, he will tell you that the universe does not prove God. He will quote several statements by leading scientists who declare that God was not necessary for the universe, because it came into existence on its own, without any help from a god.

The average person will read statements by scientists, like the late Theoretical Physicist, Stephen Hawking, and believe that what he says is true. Hawking describes our universe as one of, perhaps, an infinite number of other universes—not created by God—but created as a result one of these other universes.

This all sounds quite scientific and most people believe that a person of such great intellect—knows what he is talking about. For this reason, millions of people have determined that Hawking is right; the universe is not proof for God—it came into existence by a natural process—not by God.

The Following Are Five Theories, Suggesting We Live in A Multiverse:

Infinite Universes: UNPROVEN
Bubble Universes: UNPROVEN
Parallel Universes: UNPROVEN
Daughter Universes: UNPROVEN
Mathematical Universes: UNPROVEN

Here is where you will discover that all is not as it seems. Regarding this assertion that the universe exists by a prior universe or some natural process: these claims cannot be scientifically proven. Hawking never validated that his assertion of an infinite number, or even millions of other universes, was actually true.

All of Hawking’s ideas came from mathematical equations that conclude that other universe’s could exist, not that they actually do exist. Not one of Hawking’s theories, or any other theoretical physicist’s theories of other universes, can be proven by observable or testable science.

You will discover that all of the alternative explanations for why our universe exists by a natural process, are increasing rapidly in number because the current scientific evidence that has been observed, demands that an intelligent Being is responsible for our universe. Our universe could not exist unless intelligence had acted upon the forces of the early universe, and throughout its entire 13.799 billion year history.

This scientific evidence is called: “A Fine-Tuned Universe.”

The actual proven science that we do know today, validates that the universe came into existence suddenly, when nothing existed prior to that singularity. Before the universe began, there was nothing. No space to put a universe in. No matter to populate space. No time to mark its duration. No laws to order how the universe would exist or function.

This is interesting because this is precisely what the first line, of the first chapter, of the first book of the Bible states: “In the beginning (before time, space, and matter) God created the heavens and the earth.” Of particular interest is the Hebrew word that was used to translate “created.” When a Hebrew speaking person is seeking to convey the idea of God creating the universe, he uses the Hebrew word, “bara.” This unique word is defined as “creating something from materials that did not exist prior to that moment.” Some people use the Latin term, “ex nihilo,” to define what God did at the creation of the universe: He made everything from nothing that existed before.

Science cannot prove that the universe came into existence by itself, or as the result of any prior universe. These are simply ideas that scientists have which are scientifically viable as mathematical theories, but cannot be scientifically observed or proven or observed. We do not have the capacity to look beyond our universe to see if there actually are any others. For this reason, at best, the ideas that another universe caused our own, is not science, it is conjecture.

The scientific evidence that is observable and testable, is that the universe began suddenly when all the material that would later comprise the universe we have now, was densely compacted into a particle less than the size of an atom, made up of pure energy.

Einstein’s formula, E=MC², defines energy as transformable into matter, with the existence of gravity, space, and time.

God created energy and transformed it into the matter that would make up everything that exists when He also created space to put the matter into, gravity to shape energy into matter, and time to allow the long process necessary for this to all take place.

The laws of physics did not exist prior to the moment the universe began. Scientists like Hawking who postulate that other universes are responsible for our universe, also say that physical laws did exist before our universe, but they cannot prove this is true. The actual scientific evidence that does exist right now, proves that nothing existed prior to our universe.

The second insurmountable obstacle for the atheist scientist to overcome is to explain how our universe, that began suddenly, also displays a massive number of physical constants that are precisely set to make human life on earth possible.

A Fine-Tuned Universe: “The fine-tuned Universe is the proposition that the conditions that allow life in the Universe can occur only when certain universal dimensionless physical constants lie within a very narrow range of values, so that if any of several fundamental constants were only slightly different, the Universe would be unlikely to be conducive to the establishment and development of matter, astronomical structures, elemental diversity, or life as it is understood.“[1]

There are 209 of these physical constants that began at one millionth, of one millionth, of one millionth, of one millionth, of a second, at the commencement of the universe, and have continued throughout the 13.799 billion year history of the universe.

Imagine a control board with 209 dials that are all fixed at one precise setting.
Change any one of these by10⁴⁰
10 to the power of 40 = 10⁴⁰ = 1 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000, is equal to a universe that is 70 percent filled with grains of sand. Remove just one grain of sand and the universe cannot support life on earth.[2]
These 209 precise settings took place from -430th of a second, and continued throughout the entire 13.799 billion years of the universe.[3]
This required an intelligence to be actively participating in the development of the universe for 13.799 billions years, controlling every process with great precision.[4]

There is no natural process that is capable of a precise setting the first time. The entire basis of evolution is that billions of wrong attempts, eventually result in one that is right. In the case of the universe, unless all 209 of these calibrations were set precisely the first time, the universe would not support human life on earth.

Scientists today, not only understand how impossible life on earth is, given the conditions of a universe that began by a massive explosion of pure energy, the chance that life could exist anywhere else in this massive universe, is now understood as equally impossible.

The conclusions of many scientists today is that our universe has every appearance of being created, specifically for the purpose of sustaining human life on earth. This is precisely what God said about the universe in the Bible.

The Universe Is Empirical Evidence For God.

Despite the conclusive evidence that Intelligence was required for our universe to come into existence, proceed with precise and specific physical constants necessary for life on earth, and that no natural process is capable of these precise settings, most atheists continue to deny that the universe is evidence for God.

The universe is evidence—this is undeniable. It is the atheist that will never accept anything that proves the existence of God, that makes faith impossible.

The Second Piece Of Empirical Evidence That Proves The Existence Of God Is The Presence Of Jesus On Earth

Equally abhorrent to the atheist, is the idea that the Bible proves that God exists by the appearance of the person known as “Jesus of Nazareth,” in the pages of the New Testament.

Many people do not realize that the Old Testament predicted the exact events that we see in the person of Jesus Christ. Its not simply that we have Jesus in the New Testament, claiming to be God, performing miracles to prove His identity and dying for the sins of the world; Jesus also fulfilled over 400 Hebrew prophecies required for the Messiah.

The Old Testament is filled with predictions that God would send His Son to earth, He would die for the sins of every person and be raised to life on the third day.

The God of the Bible, promised to reveal Himself through the arrival of His Son. The entire point of the Old Testament was to give the world an advanced look at what the Messiah would be like. All of the Old Testament was written to show us who the Messiah is; what He would say, what He would do, how He would lay down His life for the sins of the world. When we examine the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus in the New Testament, we see that He perfectly fulfilled every requirement of Messiah.

The idea that Jesus was not really God, nor did He claim to be God, is preposterous. Some modern New Testament scholars claim that the disciples of Jesus made Him God by the inclusion of text which describes miracles attributed to Jesus. The problem with this claim is that the entire body of Old Testament scripture, predicts the precise miracles that Jesus performed. These prophecies were written to assist us in identifying the identity of the true Messiah once He arrived in the world.

John The Baptist Has Doubts About Jesus

The prophet Malachi predicted that before the Messiah would come, a prophet would announce His arrival (Malachi 4:5-6). The New Testament records that John the Baptist was this man (Matthew 11:11-15).

When John was arrested by Herod and sentenced to death, John began to have doubts about whether Jesus really was the Messiah. He sent word to Jesus through one of John’s disciples to ask Jesus if He was the Messiah whom the Prophets foretold.

Jesus’ response tells us a great deal about His identity:

And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” ~Matthew 11:2-5

Jesus was reminding John that the Messiah would have a ministry of healing to validate His identity. John should know that Jesus is the Messiah because He is performing miracles exactly as the Messiah was predicted to accomplish.

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert. ~Isaiah 35:5-6

When we examine the narratives about Jesus we find that the miracles Matthew recorded that Jesus performed, were the same miracles that Isaiah 35:5-6 predicted for the Messiah.

From this we see that the claims of Bart Ehrman as one of the world’s leading New Testament Scholars is flawed. Dr. Ehrman alleges that the incidents of Jesus performing miracles is an isolated case that is limited to uneducated men who made up the miracles of Jesus in order to make Him God.

The facts are, the Old Testament scriptures predicted that the Messiah would perform miracles as proof that He is God. Jesus was simply performing what had been written for Him.

We have, not only the testimony of men who saw Jesus perform miracles, but also the prophets of the Old Testament who said that the Messiah would perform miracles. These prophets had been told by God to write prophecies for the Messiah that would describe Him as, the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb sing, in Isaiah 35:5-6. When we examine the text of the New Testament, we see Jesus doing precisely what Isaiah wrote. These men had written their predictions hundreds of years before Jesus arrived.

Although the prophets wrote and described what Messiah would do, they did not understand all that they were recording.

This salvation was something the prophets did not fully understand. Though they wrote about it, they had many questions as to what it all could mean. They wondered what the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about, for he told them to write down the events which, since then, have happened to Christ: his suffering, and his great glory afterwards. And they wondered when and to whom all this would happen. They were finally told that these things would not occur during their lifetime, but long years later, during yours. ~1 Peter 1:10-12 (TLB)

Where Is The Evidence?

According to liberal atheist theologians, the miracles which Jesus performed never actually happened. They base these opinions upon their view as atheists that God doesn’t exist and miracles are not possible.

It’s important to understand that there is no empirical evidence to support the idea that what is written about Jesus in the New Testament is not true. There is no proof that anyone fabricated the narratives of the four gospels which describe Jesus as performing miracles, or His claim to be God. These conclusions are based primarily upon the opinions of Theologians, most of which are either agnostics or atheists.

Because these Theologians don’t believe God exists, they assert that the writers of the New Testament made up their stories about Jesus. This is the basis from where they conclude that He cannot be God, nor capable of the miracles that are ascribed to Him in the New Testament.

Let’s examine a few facts of the New Testament manuscripts we do have today to validate Jesus:

There are no ancient works of literature, secular or religious, which have more surviving manuscripts than the New Testament.

In the 24,593 extant copies of the New Testament that we have today, these texts are virtually identical to our current New Testament.
All of the texts where Jesus claims to be God and performs miracles to validate this claim are in these ancient manuscripts.

Table Of Extant Greek New Testament Manuscripts

A frequent argument that is often made by atheist Theologians is that the New Testament was written too far from the time when the events took place.

Some of the surviving New Testament manuscripts we have today were written as early as 60 A.D., just 28 years after Jesus was crucified and resurrected.
A manuscript fragment of Matthew’s Gospel that has been scientifically dated to just 28 years after Jesus was crucified and resurrected.
This means that the New Testament was written closer to the time when these events took place than any other literature of antiquity.
The surviving manuscripts of the New Testament are dated at various times throughout history, but they are all virtually identical to each other in their certainty that Jesus claimed to be God and His miracles prove this claim.
In truth, there are no ancient manuscripts in existence which have been dated closer to the time when the events took place, other than the New Testament.

Not one of these texts of the New Testament which were written at these early dates, nor any which were copied after, differ from our current New Testament in describing the miracles of Jesus and His claims to be God.

The minor discrepancies that are found in these surviving manuscripts are in spelling, punctuation, or grammar. Less than 400 of the 138,000 words in the New Testament are in question. Not one of these words changes the descriptions of Jesus performing miracles or the text where He claims to be God.

Textual Variants

Assertions are made that there are many inaccuracies in the New Testament, which are referred to as “Textual Variants.”

See A Detailed Article On Textual Variants

Critics of the Bible often use the number, “200,000,” in describing how many variants there are in the existing copies of the New Testament. In fact, these critics are quite disingenuous in their statements as a single word which is misspelled in thousands of manuscripts—may be counted as thousands of variants, although only one word has been misspelled.

In “A General Introduction to the Bible,” by Dr. Norman Geisler and Dr. William Nix, these astute scholars make the following observations regarding any variations between the ancient copies of the New Testament and the Bible we have today:

“There is an ambiguity in saying there are some 200,000 variants in the existing manuscripts of the New Testament, since these represent only 10,000 places in the New Testament (out of 138,000 words). If one single word is misspelled in 3,000 different manuscripts, this is counted as 3,000 variants or readings.”[10]

Biblical Scholar Dr. Philip Schaff, in his book: “Greek Testament and the English Version,” noted that there are really only 400 variants out of the entire 25,000 copies of the New Testament that are in existence. Not one of these variants are of any significance, nor affect any major doctrine of the Christian faith.

“Not one of these variations altered “an article of faith of a precept of duty which is not abundantly sustained by other and undoubted passages, or by the whole tenor of Scripture teaching.”⁠[11]

In other words, in the very limited variants of the text within the many thousands of copies of the New Testament which are in some dispute—the issues are predominately a question of spelling or punctuation. In just 50 cases, even the text that is in doubt does not change the basic tenets of the gospels which substantiate that Jesus Christ was observed by more than 500 eyewitnesses as risen from the dead, after having been crucified—His death being verified by the Roman government, the Jewish Talmud, and the disciples of Jesus.

Can An Atheist Teach New Testament Theology?

Do you find it extraordinary that someone could be distinguished as a New Testament Scholar when they don’t believe God exists? Precisely how this person is qualified to teach others about the Bible, when they don’t believe the Bible, is uncertain.

Would you trust the words of a man who claims to be a doctor but doesn’t believe in medicine?

Would you trust the conclusions of an atheist who says that the disciples of Jesus made Him God, or the actual testimony of men who were there when these events took place?

We have what these men wrote and they said Jesus claimed to be God, performed miracles and was raised from the dead.

If these men did invent the story that Jesus is God, where is the evidence of this? Dr. Ehrman, the Jesus Seminar Scholars, and all other Liberal Theologians never provide us with any textual evidence of fraud; only their personal feelings and observations.

Written As Historical Narratives

Bart Ehrman asserts that the four Gospels are not eyewitness accounts of the events which transpired during the time when Jesus was on earth.

“Our next earliest sources of information about the historical Jesus are the Gospels of the New Testament. As it turns out, these are our best sources. They are best not because they happen to be in the New Testament, but because they are also the earliest narratives of Jesus’s life to survive. But even though they are the best sources available to us, they really are not as good as we might hope. This is for several reasons. To begin with, they are not written by eyewitnesses…But in fact the books were written anonymously—the authors never identify themselves…”[5]

Does this statement sound surprising to you? If you read Dr. Ehrman’s books you will quickly notice that statements like this, which begin with the certainty that the New Testament is “our best sources,” immediately digress into, “they are not written by eyewitnesses.”

How does Ehrman know that the New Testament narratives are not written by eyewitnesses? He is guessing. He assumes that because the four Gospels do not have the name of the writers attached to them, they cannot be relied upon.

In fact, the reason that these names were omitted was purposeful. The authors did not want to receive personal recognition, they wanted Jesus to be recognized.

The evidence proves that the four Gospels are written by eyewitnesses. In fact, when you read these narratives for yourself, you will see that these men state specifically that they are eyewitness.

For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. ~2 Peter 1:16-18

Ehrman’s conclusions are based solely upon his idea that the stories about Jesus are too spectacular to be true; God doesn’t exist and miracles are not possible; therefore, the disciples of Jesus made up these stories.

Most people who have read Dr. Ehrman’s New York Times Bestsellers assume that he made these conclusions based upon evidence. When we read his books, we find that conclusions are made by conjecture and there is no evidence in the historical record which support his ideas.

Ehrman began with the assumption that God does not exist; therefore Jesus cannot be God; therefore Jesus did not do what is recorded of Him in the New Testament.

Now you see how the world has arrived at a place where an atheist dictates to us whether Jesus is represented correctly in the New Testament.

Notice Ehrman’s statement regarding the accounts of Jesus:

“The reason we need books like these (the book Ehrman wrote) is that the Gospels cannot simply be taken at face value as giving us historically reliable accounts of the things Jesus said and did.”[6]

Dr. Ehrman stipulates that if the New Testament were considered reliable, it would be all that anyone would need for historical scholarship to prove that Jesus is who is described by the New Testament.

“If the Gospels were those sorts of trustworthy biographies that recorded Jesus’s life “as it really was,” there would be little need for historical scholarship.”[7]

The problem is that Dr. Ehrman states that the New Testament is not trustworthy, while all the evidence proves that it is reliable. As we progress through this book you will see this evidence and understand why Ehrman is wrong.

This is what happens when a person starts with a bias that God does not exist. Every conclusion and statement that comes afterwards becomes inaccurate. The evidence from history provides us with tremendous evidence that what we have in our Bible today, is exactly what was written about Jesus when the events took place.

“All we would need to do would be to read the Bible and accept what it says as what really happened. That, of course, is the approach to the Bible that fundamentalists take.”[8]

By “fundamentalist,” Ehrman means men like myself, who have, for hundreds of years, documented and written to bring evidence of Jesus’ Narrative as “trustworthy biographies that recorded Jesus’s life.”

Ehrman’s book is filled with inaccuracies which allege that Jesus never intended to present Himself in the manner that these men describe Him as in the New Testament. If you read Dr. Ehrman’s conclusions carefully you will notice that he believes that he is in a better position today to tell us whether the New Testament narratives are true, rather than the actual men who wrote these historical accounts 2,000 years ago.

After learning that Dr. Ehrman does not know that Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s Gospels contain clear references by Jesus to be God as He is before the Pharisees and about to be killed for Blasphemy, it is doubtful we can trust his judgment that the New Testament has misrepresented Jesus.

It is Dr. Ehrman that is inaccurate and making untrue conclusions based upon his feelings instead of the evidence.

The following is what the text of the four Gospels actually present, in direct contradiction to Ehrman’s claim:

The New Testament Claims Eyewitness Accounts

John writes that he has both seen and testified that the evidence contained in the Gospels is true and he knows that he is telling the truth because he was there and saw Jesus do these things.

And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe. ~John 19:35

John tells us the reason he is writing, to give us evidence to conclude that what is written by the four Gospels is eyewitness testimony. The reason that John says this narrative was written and preserved for us is so that anyone might read it and believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God—equal to God.

And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. ~John 20:30-31

John was the only disciple of Jesus, never to abandon Him. Even at the cross, John stood close by—not afraid to be identified with Jesus. The other disciples were hiding away while John remained faithful to Jesus. For His steadfast love, John was given the privilege of writing the most magnificent Gospel of all. The very words which John penned in his narrative of Jesus should be written in Gold.

The intent of John’s narrative of Jesus is to prove that He is God. For this reason, John’s Gospel is different than the other three.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us about what Jesus said and did; John tells us why He did these things.

We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life.

He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy. ~1 John 1:1-4 (NLT)

Jesus said that He called these men to write and bear witness of what they saw.

And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning. ~John 15:27

Paul records the purpose of the four Gospels of Jesus as historical narratives of actual events, recounted by eyewitnesses.

Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John to that day when He was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.” ~Acts 1:21-22

As Peter stands before thousands of people from all over the world on the Day of Pentecost, he describes David as a prophet, predicting the Messiah who would come from his line of descendants. Peter said that David predicted the Messiah would be killed and resurrected and the men who saw these things would be His witnesses.

Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. ~Acts 2:29-32

There is a pattern here that we should not miss. The New Testament was written as a historical narrative, not as unsubstantiated stories. The evidence for this is disbursed throughout the twenty-seven books that were written to act as a witness for Jesus.

The assertion of those who seek to discredit the New Testament is that these accounts should not be seen by the reader as historical, nor reliable. When we read the text for ourselves, it is impossible to maintain this stance.

Clearly, Paul, Peter, John, and the other writers of the New Testament understood that Jesus had called them to tell the truthful details of His life, death, and resurrection. The reason? So that a historical record could be preserved for every generation. These men did this so that people could know about the incredible salvation that God has provided for all people.

The reason that this should be important to you is understood by what is being attempted today by Liberal Theologians. These men and women have launched a full scale assault on the credibility and reliability of the New Testament. They have caused the whole world to sit up and take notice.

If the accounts that are found in the New Testament about Jesus are misrepresented to the world as not true, then everything that Jesus died to give the world will be lost.

The facts of evidence prove they are true.

One of the reasons I wrote this book was so that people might know that there are individuals who are held up today as New Testament scholars, who do not believe that God exists. The world doesn’t know this. They see that these men and women have the credentials to make credible commentary on the New Testament. They believe that these individuals know what they are talking about. They hear from these deceptive scholars that what is written about Jesus in the New Testament is not true. They stop believing that Jesus came to die for the sins of the world. They miss the eternal life that God has freely made available.

Written As Eyewitness Narratives

The writers of the New Testament make numerous statements in the text that it was their goal to be witnesses of what they had seen and heard about Jesus.

When Peter went into the temple and began to pray at 3pm, he saw a man who was crippled. He lifted the man by the hand and he was immediately able to walk. The crowd looked to Peter as something spectacular and he told them that this power to perform miracles came from Jesus whom they crucified and God raised to life.

Peter said that his purpose was to bear witness of Jesus and point people to Him.

So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: “Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. ~Acts 3:12-15

Paul records that Peter and the other Apostles stood before the captain of the temple, with the chief priests, the Jewish high council, and the esteemed Gamaliel. Peter again confirmed that all of the men who wrote in recording what Jesus had said and done were witnesses that He was crucified and raised on the third day.

But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are His witnesses to these things. ~Acts 5:29-32

When Peter came to the Roman Centurion, Cornelius and his household, he testified that he and the other men who had been with Jesus for the last three years of His life were witnesses to “all things which He did.”

Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all— that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.” ~Acts 10:34-43

The Purpose Of The New Testament Is Clear

Since there is such a great body of evidence within the New Testament to validate that what was written came to us by eyewitness testimony, there is no valid reason to doubt that what is written about Jesus is true.

When we compare all of the records which have survived history, we find that they agree that Jesus was both capable of miracles, was crucified, and raised on the third day. There is no ambiguity in these important facts. What is at question are 40 lines, containing about 400 words out of nearly 200,000 words which make up the New Testament. Not one of these lines or words brings into question the miracles of Jesus, His death by crucifixion, or the resurrection that took place afterwards.

Of the 40 lines in question, 75%, or about 300 words, are all found in the last portion of Mark’s Gospel, Chapter 16, verses 9-20. The other 100 words are very minor and do not alter the testimony of Jesus’ miracles, His crucifixion, or the resurrection.[9]

Because of the evidence presented by the surviving New Testament manuscripts, and these being uniform in their descriptions of Jesus’ miracles and the text where He makes it clear that He is God, the objections of Dr. Ehrman and others who dispute these text as reliable, have no evidentiary validity.

The entire purpose for writing the Gospels in the first place, was because the world had seen Jesus’ miracles as acts of God who came to our world, to show Himself and redeem us from sin and death.

The disciples saw the miracles Jesus performed and later realized that what He was doing, the prophets had foretold. Because of the validation of the Old Testament, these men were confident that what they had written had the support of the Hebrew historical record.

Jesus’ disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him. ~John 12:16 RCR

What Would You Do?

If an event of this magnitude took place in your life, what would your response be?

There is a line in the popular movie Déjà vu where Denzel Washington tells a woman about the things he has seen. He asks her what she would do if she saw things that were so incredible she was sure no one would believe her. She said, “I would try.”

The events these men described in the narratives of the New Testament were beyond belief. They understood that people were going to find it hard to accept their testimony. It was for this reason that they said things such as John 19:35, And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe.

There is no other event in the history of the world that has left us with greater written evidence than that of the New Testament.

If we evaluate the events of history we see that the testimony about Jesus in the New Testament was written closer to the time of these events than any other event in the history of the world, just 28 years. We have more surviving manuscripts of the New Testament than any other event of antiquity, 24,593. Our Bible today is a virtual copy of the text that was originally written, 2,000 years ago.

The closest secular manuscripts that have survived time and decay are those of the Iliad, with a 500 year gap between the time the events took place and the first copies. There are only 642 surviving copies of the Iliad.

Strangely, no one disputes the authenticity or accuracy of the Iliad, while vigorously refuting the New Testament.

This is because Homer’s Iliad does not call the salvation of people into question. The Gospel of Jesus Christ requires our repentance and surrender to Jesus as our Savior. This is the reason why people are resistant to define the New Testament as accurate and reliable as it deserved.

Jesus said that the reason people do not come to Him is because He testifies that their works are evil. People love their life the way it is and they don’t want God anyone else to interfere.

The world…hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil. ~John 7:7

But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. ~John 5:40

Our Premise Determines The Outcome

If we begin with the idea that God does not exist, then this premise will affect many other parts of our life. We see this best illustrated by Bart Ehrman who began writing books with the idea that God cannot exist.

Based on a fundamental error from the start, every work that proceeded afterwards was in error. Imagine an entire lifetime wasted because of one error which ruined everything that came after.

When we don’t accept the surviving Manuscripts of the New Testament for what they are, historical documents which were copied from originals that were written near the time when these events took place, our trouble begins.

Simply looking at the evidence and not the opinions of people who are asserting that what we are seeing is not true, can change our view.

For myself, the final convincing pieces of evidence to believe the authenticity of the New Testament narratives of Jesus consisted of three things:

One: The events which are described for Jesus do not reside in the historical record alone. There is a vast history of Hebrew text which supports the certainty that a person exactly like Jesus would come into the world scene.

Jesus literally said and did precisely what the Hebrew prophets said the Messiah would say and do.

This means that the New Testament is supported by a very long history of events and evidence which stated beforehand that the events we read in the New Testament would take place.

Two: Years ago I began a course in fraud detection for written testimony. These are the principles that are used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation everyday to detect untrue testimony by people who claim to be witnesses.

Near the end of this course I began to take what I had learned and apply these principles to the four Gospels. I was stunned by what I found.

When we use intelligent procedures which have been proven to detect fraud in written testimony and apply them to the text of the four Gospels, we are able to validate these texts as authentic accounts by evidence that proves these testimonies are absolutely reliable. I will present evidence for how these techniques can be applied to the New Testament narrative, in the next chapter.

Three: The shear magnitude of surviving manuscript evidence that has been left to us from the events that took place in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ are empirical and compelling. If we simply take these texts as they are and examine them as preserved evidence, we cannot conclude that they were altered or embellished. Exaggerated and untrue stories do not survive 2,000 years of history without being discovered as frauds. They do not survive in the sheer numbers we have for the New Testament. Most surprising of all, they match the Bible we have in our possession today.

As you study the life of Jesus in the New Testament, you will be amazed at the empirical evidence which exists to support every testimony of Jesus is absolutely reliable. If on the last day of your life on earth, you have not come to Jesus in faith and asked Him to forgive your sins—trusting in His death and resurrection for your salvation, you will die in your sins and be lost forever. On the day of your judgement, you will not be able to say that you didn’t know that Jesus is the Messiah, or that the testimony about Him is true. God will say to you, “you had the scriptures, you had the testimony of the universe I created, you are without excuse.”

God wrote a book in the form of a love letter, to every person on earth. He filled it with promises to send a Savior, showed us sinful men and women whom He interacted with and built their faith. He brought His Son to the earth in the body of a man and let Him died for your sins and raised Him from the dead. You have been provided all the evidence that any reasonable person would need to believe. If you are lost, it will be your own fault. God has done all that He could do to save you.

The Preceding Is A Brief Summary Of Evidence To Support The Certainty That God Exists

This web site has over 20,000 pages of evidence to prove that Jesus is God, Creator of the universe and only Savior of the world. The atheist’s argument that “there is no evidence for God,” is impeached by the existence of the universe, human life, and presence of Jesus on earth—proving that He is God.

See The Following Articles On This Web Site For Evidence That The New Testament Is Reliable:

The Universe

The Bible

The Historical Jesus

The Resurrection

One Way To Heaven

NOTES:

[1] 1. Rees, Martin (May 3, 2001). Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape The Universe (1st American ed.). New York, NY: Basic Books. p. 4.
2. Gribbin. J and Rees. M, Cosmic Coincidences: Dark Matter, Mankind, and Anthropic Cosmology p. 7, 269, 1989, ISBN 0-553-34740-3
3. Davis, Paul (2007). Cosmic Jackpot: Why Our Universe Is Just Right for Life. New York, NY: Orion Publications. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-61859226-5.
4. Stephen Hawking, 1988. A Brief History of Time, Bantam Books, ISBN 0-553-05340-X, p. 7, 125.
5. Wikipedia article: “Fine-Tuned Universe.”
[2] “How Intelligence Acted Upon The Universe: Observable Facts Of Science,” by Robert Clifton Robinson, 2018, ASIN: B07DVVMPZR.
[3] ibid.
[4] ibid.
[5] 2 Ehrman, Bart D.. How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee (pp. 89-90). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
[6] 3 Ehrman, Bart D.. How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee (p. 88). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
[7] 4 Ehrman, Bart D.. How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee (p. 88). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
[8] 5 Ehrman, Bart D.. How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee (p. 88). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
[9] 5.5 General Introduction to the Bible, Geisler & Nix, Chicago: Moody, 1968, p.367
[10] 6 Norman Geisler and William Nix, “A General Introduction to the Bible,” Moody Press, New Addition, 1986, ISBN: 0802429165, Page 361
[11] 7 Philip Schaff, “Companion to the Greek Testament and the English Version”. Revised edition, New York: Harper Brothers,1883, Page 177

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Categories: Agnostics and Skeptics, Alleged Contradictions, Atheists, Evolution of Species, Forgiveness of Sin, God is perfect, How Salvation Occurs, Messianic Prophecies, Origin of the four Gospels, Physical Constants, Robert Clifton Robinson, Science and the Bible, The Historical Jesus, The Resurrection of Jesus, True Repentance

Tags: 100 Proofs of Jesus From Non Biblical Sources, A Universe From God, Creation of the Universe, Empirical Evidence For God, Every Prophecy Jesus Fulfilled, Fine tuning of the universe, Forensic Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus, How The Universe Was Made, Jesus as God

Robert Clifton Robinson

Christian Author, Philosopher, & Apologist | Apologetics | Christology | Ecclesiology | Eschatology | Soteriology